In the semiconductor industry, various manufacturing processes are typically carried out on a substrate (e.g., a semiconductor workpiece) in order to achieve various results on the substrate. Processes such as ion implantation, for example, can be performed in order to obtain a particular characteristic on or within the substrate, such as limiting a diffusivity of a dielectric layer on the substrate by implanting a specific type of ion. Conventionally, ion implantation processes are performed in either a batch process, wherein multiple substrates are processed simultaneously, or in a serial process, wherein a single substrate is individually processed. Traditional high-energy or high-current batch ion implanters, for example, are operable to achieve a short ion beam line, wherein a large number of workpieces may be placed on a wheel or disk, and the wheel is simultaneously spun and radially translated through the ion beam, thus exposing all of the substrates surface area to the beam at various times throughout the process. Processing batches of substrates in such a manner, however, generally makes the ion implanter substantially large in size.
In a typical serial implantation process, on the other hand, an ion beam is gene rally scanned back and forth across the workpiece multiple times. To facilitate implanting all of the workpiece with ions, the length of the scan path generally exceeds the diameter of the workpiece (e.g., so that edge portions of the workpiece also receive a uniform doping). However, since the workpiece is generally round (except where alignment notches may be located, for example), it can be appreciated that the beam “overshoots” or does not impinge upon the workpiece or substrate for substantial periods of time (e.g., where the beam is not scanning across the widest portion of the workpiece). This reduces throughput and wastes resources. Accordingly, it would be desirable to implant ions into a workpiece in a serial process in a manner that mitigates overshoot and thereby facilitates improved efficiency.